Montreal Artists: Amelie Legault

Amélie Legault is the 7th artist whose work I'm documenting as part of my Montreal Artists series.
Through her illustrations, Amélie has created a beautiful, whimsical, and absurd world where flamingos ride tandem bicycles, lobsters dress up for winter with cozy mitts, and pigeons go skateboarding. (The last one could totally happen in real life though. Pigeons are fearless.)

She starts by sketching drafts of her animals, experimentally bending their limbs around bicycles, while remaining (loosely) within the bounds of physics.

Once she’s satisfied, she inks the outline of the animals.

On a new piece of paper that she overlays over her inked sketch, she’ll take out her arsenal of markers and start creating her signature look with bright, vibrant gradients of colour.

The only thing left is to scan and print them. Amélie creates calendars, prints, and all sorts of cards.

When seeing her work for the first time I didn’t realize that it was all done by hand. I thought that some of the colours were added on the computer, or the colours retouched somehow. But the originals are just as clean, bright and vibrant as her finished products. Despite the impossible scenarios Amélie creates, she draws her animals in a realistic and surprisingly anatomically plausible manner. I’ve never seen a giraffe riding a bicycle before, but I’m pretty sure it would look like that. I love the frivolous details and ironies she adds, like the tiny bike helmet on the massive shark, the ear-muffs on the fish, or the wood in the beaver’s picnic basket.

Unfortunately for Amélie, she can only surround herself with imaginary animals, since she’s allergic to pretty much all of them. :(

Check out Amélie's full portfolio here or go straight to her Etsy store to see what products she has. And keep an eye out for the different fairs across Montreal and beyond! There’s a good chance you’ll see Amélie and her unmistakable illustrations! If you're interested in reading the stories of other Montreal Artists, check out the page here.